Monetarism and Supply Side Economics: Free Market Thought in the Late 20th Century

Dr. Arjo Klamer: Monetarism emerged in the 1960's under the leadership of Milton Friedman, who received the Nobel Prize in 1976. Friedman taught at the University of Chicago during this period, developing monetarism as a branch of Frank Knight's famous "Chicago School" of economics. Monetarists emphasize the role of money and the government's monetary policy in economic affairs; they vigorously defend the free market in their work.

Ludwig von Mises (1881-1973) and Friedrich Hayek (1899-1992) were perhaps the foremost defenders of the free market and limited government during the mid-twentieth century ascendancy of Keynesian economics.

The Keynesian Revolution

John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946) was without question the most influential economist of the twentieth century. His most important work, The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money, was published in 1936, and it was widely perceived as offering plausible explanations and solutions for the Great Depression.<

The Classical Economists

The classical economists pioneered a new way of thinking about the uniquely human tendency to produce, trade, consume, and accumulate. Adam Smith (1723-1790) explained how the division of labor expands productive power and argued for freedom in economic affairs. David Ricardo (1772-1823), a London stockbroker, developed the concept of diminishing returns, the wages-fund doctrine, and classical rent theory.

Joseph Schumpeter and Dynamic Economical Change

Joseph Schumpeter (1883-1950) viewed capitalism as a dynamic engine of progress. In his view, mature economic systems find a regular and stable routine of supply, demand, and exchange; Schumpeter called this the "circular flow". Entrepreneurs interrupt this circular flow with new ideas and visions about the economic future, recombining existing resources to create new and more valuable products and services.

The Wealth of Nations

The foundation for all modern economic thought and political economy, The Wealth of Nations is the magnum opus of Scottish economist Adam Smith, who introduces the world to the very idea of economics and capitalism in the modern sense of the words.

Early Austrian Economics

Carl Menger (1840-1921) and Eugen von Bohm-Bawerk (1851-1914), working in Vienna in the late nineteenth century, rejected the classical and Marxian ideas that value can be measured objectively. They insisted that the subjective preferences of consumers determine value; this shifted the attention of economic analysis from productive power to consumer demand.

Since World War II, economists have struggled to understand the Keynesian Revolution and to apply its lessons to the modern economy. The heart of the debate over Keynes' radical ideas has been whether they could or should be reconciled with the older, neoclassical economic theory.

The Vision of Leon Walras

Leon Walras (1834-1910) transformed economics from a literary discipline into a mathematical, deterministic science. For the first time, Walras expressed rigorously the view that all markets are related, and that their relationships can be described and analyzed mathematically.

Alfred Marshall and Neoclassicism: Economics Becomes a Science

Alfred Marshall, a British economics professor at Oxford University, developed economics into a more rigorous, professional discipline than ever before. He invented concepts such as price elasticity, the representative firm, consumer's surplus, and other ideas that significantly enlarged the "analytical tool kit" of the economist.

Keynes Hayek: The Clash That Defined Modern Economics

As the stock market crash of 1929 plunged the world into turmoil, two men emerged with competing claims on how to restore the balance to economies gone awry. John Maynard Keynes, the mercurial Cambridge economist, believed that government had a duty to spend when others would not. He met his opposite in a little-known Austrian economics professor, Friedrich Hayek, who considered attempts to intervene both pointless and potentially dangerous.

Anandasubramanian says:"An unbiased evaluation of both the major economist"

Karl Marx: Das Kapital

In his monumental work, Das Kapital, Karl Marx (1818-1883) tried to show that capitalism was both inefficient and immoral. His key to explaining capitalism is his labor theory of value, which he developed from ideas of Adam Smith and David Ricardo.

An Economic History of the World since 1400

Most of us have a limited understanding of the powerful role economics has played in shaping human civilization. This makes economic history - the study of how civilizations structured their environments to provide food, shelter, and material goods - a vital lens through which to think about how we arrived at our present, globalized moment. Designed to fill a long-empty gap in how we think about modern history, these 48 lectures are a comprehensive journey through more than 600 years of economic history.

Phishing for Phools: The Economics of Manipulation and Deception

Ever since Adam Smith, the central teaching of economics has been that free markets provide us with material well-being, as if by an invisible hand. In Phishing for Phools, Nobel Prize-winning economists George Akerlof and Robert Shiller deliver a fundamental challenge to this insight, arguing that markets harm as well as help us. As long as there is profit to be made, sellers will systematically exploit our psychological weaknesses and our ignorance through manipulation and deception.

Fundamental Analysis, Value Investing, and Growth Investing

Benjamin Graham developed "value investing", a style adopted by Warren Buffett, one of history's most successful investors. It is based on "fundamental analysis", which quantitatively compares a company's stock price to various measures of financial strength and promise. "Growth investing" is a fundamentally different style that seeks to identify tomorrow's great business successes. Learn the ins and outs, and the pros and cons, of these basic investment styles.

Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market - Scholar's Edition

Murray N. Rothbard's great treatise, Man, Economy, and State, and its complementary text, Power and Market, are here combined into a single audiobook edition as they were written to be. It provides a sweeping presentation of Austrian economic theory, a reconstruction of many aspects of that theory, a rigorous criticism of alternative schools, and an inspiring look at a science of liberty that concerns nearly everything and should concern everyone.

Frank Knight and the Chicago School: The Role of Economic Uncertainty

Frank Knight (1885-1972) fathered the famous Chicago School of Economics, whose members are among the most decorated in history. An abstract theorist, Knight emphasized the role of risk and uncertainty in economic affairs, and was philosophically concerned with such topics as means vs. ends, economics as a study of human nature, and human communication.

St. Thomas Aquinas: The Giants of Philosophy

St. Thomas Aquinas is known for producing history's most complete system of Christian philosophy. In the late 13th century, this quiet, reflective Dominican scholar combined the work of Aristotle with Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and pagan thought to reconcile reason and faith. For Thomas, intellectual knowledge is a sign of the spirituality that energizes the human center. He believed we can know that God exists, but not what God is like.

The Fatal Conceit: The Errors of Socialism

Hayek gives the main arguments for the free-market case and presents his manifesto on the "errors of socialism." Hayek argues that socialism has, from its origins, been mistaken on factual, and even on logical, grounds and that its repeated failures in the many different practical applications of socialist ideas that this century has witnessed were the direct outcome of these errors. He labels as the "fatal conceit" the idea that "man is able to shape the world around him according to his wishes."

The top 1 percent of Americans control 40 percent of the nation's wealth. And, as Joseph E. Stiglitz explains, while those at the top enjoy the best health care, education, and benefits of wealth, they fail to realize that "their fate is bound up with how the other 99 percent live." Stiglitz draws on his deep understanding of economics to show that growing inequality is not inevitable. He examines our current state, then teases out its implications for democracy, for monetary and budgetary policy, and for globalization. He closes with a plan for a more just and prosperous future.

Investment Philosophers and Financial Economists

Saving, budgeting, and investing are keys to creating wealth, but there are many different philosophies about how to approach this essential task. The "investment philosophers" offer systematic beliefs about investing that often parallel other systems of human conduct (e.g. Taoism, the hunter-warrior). The financial economists (e.g. Fisher, Keynes) offer insights about how human behavior is collectively expressed in markets.

The Rise and Fall of American Growth: The U.S. Standard of Living Since the Civil War

In the century after the Civil War, an economic revolution improved the American standard of living in ways previously unimaginable. Electric lighting, indoor plumbing, home appliances, motor vehicles, air travel, air conditioning, and television transformed households and workplaces. With medical advances, life expectancy between 1870 and 1970 grew from 45 to 72 years. The Rise and Fall of American Growth provides an in-depth account of this momentous era.

isaiah says:"The book is a great review of how we got to where we are today"

Thorstein Veblen and Institutionalism: Social Institutions Gain New Significance in Economics

Institutionalism is an economic point of view that emphasizes the role of social organization and structure in modern economic life. Thorstein Veblen (1857-1929), an American son of Norwegian immigrants, was instrumental in creating this school of thought in the early twentieth century, and he vigorously attacked what he regarded as the privileged "leisure class" in America.

Publisher's Summary

Beginning in the early 1840's, a group of German university professors denounced the abstract theories of classical economists, rejecting theoretical analysis in favor of a historical approach. They believed that theories only express what happens in a simplified world, not in the real world, and that they offer little solution to the pressing social problems of the underprivileged. Seeking to find a middle ground between laissez faire capitalism and the Marxist revolution, they pioneered welfare capitalism.

Great Economic Thinkers is a collection of audio presentations that explain, in understandable language, the major ideas of history's most important economists. Special emphasis is placed on each thinker's attitude toward capitalism, revealing their influence in today's debate on economic progress and prosperity.

This was my third in the great economic thinkers series and they are good concise reviews of the intellectuals of the different branches is the tree of economic thought. Just enough here to get me interested in further readings.

This was originally produced for Knowledge Products on tape. I have listened to the economics series of which this is a part several times - and learn something each time. The production is excellent, the narration interesting and the topic fascinating -even when I disagree with the conclusions.